The report said that the East Carolina Board of Trustees will hold a meeting at 1 p.m. Wednesday with the goal of approving the contract for a new athletic director. The newspaper sited multiple unidentified sources indicating that Gilbert is expected to be the man that ECU will hire.

Jeff Compher resigned as East Carolina athletic director in March.

Former Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart, who Gilbert worked under in his previous role as a deputy athletic director at Tennessee, is serving as a special consultant to ECU in its search for an athletic director.

Southern Miss hired Gilbert as athletic director in January of 2017.

East Carolina features an athletic budget of over $48,000,000, according to 2016-17 numbers from USA Today. USM’s athletic revenue ranked last in Conference USA in 2016-17, at $23,984,639.